3 Lessons From Drua’s Loss To Force

It was a lethargic performance from the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua when they lost 34-14 against Western Force at the HBF Park in Perth, Australia, on Friday night.

The tough clash against the Hurricanes in Suva, last Saturday, seemed to take its toll on the Drua side as they constantly made basic mistakes and the substitutes lacked the firepower to trouble the opposition.

The Drua’s points came from tries to winger Eroni Sau and lock Te Ahiwaru Cirikidaveta with Frank Lomani landing the conversions as they trailed Force 15-14 at halftime.

In the second half it was all Force with 19 unanswered points.

There were lessons learnt from the loss but let’s take a look at these three:

LESSON 1: ‘THINKING GAME’ A MUST

Force halfback Issak Fines-Leleiwasa showed that against Lomani and his replacement Peni Matawalu. Apart from controlling the tempo of the game, Leleiwasa played a thinking game.

That was the difference as he stuck to their game plan and kept the scoreboard ticking away.   

LESSON 2: CHANGE THE NO.10

It’s now time to put Tuidraki Samusamuvodre back at No.10. He is a natural first five eight and has thrived in that position while playing for Nadi, Naitasiri, Fiji Under-20 and the Fijian Warriors.

Samusamuvodre, has been playing out of position for the past two years in Super Rugby. Teti Tela, deserves to take a short break while Samusamvodre and Muntz should share the workload and responsibilities at No.10.

LESSION 3: NEED FOR SUPER SUBS

Substitutes are termed as impact players. That means they have the capacity to take the game to the next level and are virtually game-changers.

Our backline substitutes against the Force lacked the thrust and the momentum to do that.

It was disappointing. This is because the players were playing out of position. It could have been logic to put Michael Naitokani or Apisalome Vota on the bench because either play could provide that much-needed thrust at centre or wing.

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